PARIS, October 21 (Itar-Tass) —— Protection of users’ rights and fighting cyber crimes should be made on only at national, but also at international levels, Russia’s Minister of Communications and Mass Media Igor Shchegolev told an international meeting on development and security of the Internet, which is organised at the initiative of France.
“It is necessary to protect regular users, but no businesses or non-governmental organisation may cope with the task on their own,” he said. “It is necessary to improve legislation at national and international levels.”
It is important that users are guaranteed a free access to all means of communications, while at the same time their private life must be guaranteed from dishonest threats.
“We started working on it eight years ago and have gained much progress,” Shchegolev said. “The role of the Internet in the world economy and many financial and social processes is so big that it is necessary to consider security not only from the point of view of self-regulation, but also from the point of view of involving both communities and states.”
The UK’s Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries Ed Vaizey expressed a similar point of view, saying that businesses should not underestimate security in the Internet space and that it is necessary to inform users in easy and clear forms.
France has discussed to the discussion the G-8 countries, delegations from the European Union, from leading countries of Asia and Africa. Along with state officials, the meeting features researchers, bloggers, non-governmental organisations and leading companies – Microsoft, Google and Intel.
France’s Minister of Industry, Energy and the Digital Economy Eric Besson said that as of late 2010, the number of Internet users in the world exceeded two billion.